As my new Cilia Guitars is nearing completion it is time for me to start a build diary so that I can share the build process with you. As you probably know I already own a custom Cilia Guitars CGA 7 and posted the progress shots in a series of posts back in February 2013. Last year I decided I needed another of Charles Cilia’s exceptional guitars in my collection so I went over to his workshop to sit down and plan my 2nd Custom Cilia. First of all I knew I wanted a 6 string guitar and because I already own a 7 string superstrat style guitar with a floyd rose, a Suhr S4 which is a sort of modern Strat style guitar, a Patrick Eggle which is PRS-like I wanted something a bit different. Over the years I have played many Cilia guitars and have always loved Charles’ Cilia Halo which is a singlecut design with his own custom pickups that sounds and feels amazing. The Halo has a 25″ scale length giving the strings a little more tension than a Les Paul and a touch less than a Fender Strat and it has a single volume and tone control to accompany the 3 way toggle switch.

This guitar is going to look stunning, I have already decided on a transparent black finish with gold hardware. When I was at the Cilia Workshop Charles showed me all of his current available supplies of Maple tops, he knows me well so he had a couple of pieces that he had in mind for me and when I saw the burl Maple slab pictured below I knew it was the one. It is quite similar to the piece I chose for my CGA 7 but even more irregularities which are going to look amazing once there is some stain on the wood. As you can see below Charles also picked out the other tone woods, Mahogany for the body and neck and Rosewood for the fingerboard. I wanted to stray away from the traditional singlecut feel so I am actually getting the CGA 6 neck carve (because I love my CGA7 so much) and Stainless Steel frets. The neck is already finished and with the split block inlays that I chose it looks really cool and feels fantastic.

More updates to follow soon once Charles gets some time to send over more photos. In the meantime I would encourage you to check out his Facebook page to see more of his stunning guitars – https://www.facebook.com/ciliaguitarsaustralia/.